On Reading the Bible: Thoughts and Reflections of Over 500 Men and Women, from St. Augustine to Oprah Winfrey

Bibliographical Note

On Reading the Bible: Thoughts and Reflections of Over 500 Men and Women, from St. Augustine to Oprah Winfrey is a new work, first published by Dover Publications, Inc., in 2005.

Copyright

Copyright © 2005 by Bill Bradfield All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

On reading the Bible : thoughts and reflections of over 500 men and

women, from St. Augustine to Oprah Winfrey / edited by Bill Bradfield.

p. cm.

9780486149493

1. Bible—Reading. I. Bradfield, Bill, 1927–

BS617.O5 2005

220.1—dc22 2004058233

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

A Dedication to Sowers of the Word

THIS anthology of quotations about the Bible and Bible-reading is dedicated to the thousands of Gideons who effectively have become Sowers of the Word, exemplified in the New Testament by Christ’s parable of the sower.

Three traveling salesmen—John H. Nicholson, Sam E. Hill, and Will J. Knights—organized the Gideons as a Christian evangelical fellowship in 1899, meeting at a YMCA building in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Choosing to name their organization for a biblical character, the trio of founders picked one from the Old Testament described in the Book of Judges as a man willing to do exactly what God wanted him to do, at any time and any place, regardless of his own judgment as to plans or results. They agreed that they wanted to follow Gideon’s example in showing qualities of humility, faith, and obedience to God’s will.

The association grew rapidly—large enough by 1908 to hold a convention in Louisville, Kentucky. During the convention, members adopted a plan to provide Bibles to hotel bedrooms. In 1916, Gideons began placement of Bibles also at the bedside of hospital patients, a program broadened in later years to prisons, military chapels, nursing homes, offices of doctors and dentists, and foreign refugee camps.

Besides providing Bibles in places where God’s Word would be available to those who might not otherwise encounter it, Gideons also engaged in hand distribution of Scriptures from time to time, most notably as a large-scale effort to supply pocket editions to servicemen during and since World War II.

Early in its history the organization spread to Toronto, Canada, and subsequently to several other countries. International membership surged during the mid-century period. By 1980 the Gideon ministry was organized in 122 countries and Scriptures were being distributed in fifty languages.

Since 1964, Nashville has been the association’s headquarters city.

Major changes in printing technology, coupled with membership growth, enabled the Gideons to expand remarkably their distribution of Bibles during the twentieth century’s later years to a point where the average exceeded a million copies per week. In mid 2001, leaders calculated that the total since 1908 had just passed the one billion mark.

Membership including the women’s auxiliary numbered 133,944 in the United States and 250,079 worldwide in September 2004.

Acknowledgments

Quotations that represented early, significant contributions to On Reading the Bible came from two multitalented writers: JAMES REAPSOME of Wheaton, Illinois, and DR. JAMES E. ROSSCUP of Whittier, California.

During his notable career as a Christian journalist, Jim Reapsome was managing editor of Christianity Today magazine, later serving as editor of the Billy Graham Center’s Evangelical Missions Quarterly and its World Pulse newsletter. Jim Rosscup, an Arizonan who received his Ph.D. at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, headed the department of Bible Exposition at Talbot Theological Seminary from 1965 until 1987. Since then, he has been a professor on the faculty of The Master’s Seminary at Sun Valley, California.

Our friendship traces back memorably to newspaper days when the two Jims were young award-winning columnists and sports editors with whom I shared the pressure of many press deadlines.

My thanks go to them and to others who have given thoughtful suggestions and encouragement for this quotation anthology—Tom and Ruth Loney, Jim Gregory, Charlotte Maceo, Dr. Charles Baker, Ron Maness, Bob Thomas, Wallace Finfrock, Ann Shelton, Clay Bradfield, Stacy Obenhaus, Bill Reed, and Dr. Don Umphrey.

I am grateful also to Christopher Pope, whose Christian Authors database became a valued source of information via the internet.

Most of all, I want to thank my wife, Clare, who continues to amaze me with her keen skills in copyediting, proofreading, and solving New York Times crossword puzzles.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Bibliographical Note

Copyright Page

A Dedication to Sowers of the Word

Acknowledgments

Quotations

Brief Notes on Authors

Quotations

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens to their country and respectable members of society.

I speak as a man of the world to men of the world, and I say to you, search the Scriptures! The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life—not to be read once or twice through and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted unless by some overruling necessity.

MARILYN McCORD ADAMS

However much it divides, the Bible also has a marvelous way of bringing people together.

NA’IM AKBAR

Black women didn’t know nothing about Dr. Spock, but they did know the Bible. Raise up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.

WILLIAM FOXWELL ALBRIGHT

Thanks to the Qumran discoveries, the New Testament proves to be in fact what it was formerly believed to be: the teaching of Christ and his immediate followers between circa 25 and circa 80 A.D. In the light of these finds, the New Testament becomes more Jewish than we thought—as truly Jewish as the Old Testament is Israelite. Yet both parts of our Bible are deeply indebted to the world in which they arose . . . The non-Jewish streams which flowed through Judaism into nascent Christianity were transfigured by the Cross and given a spiritual depth which was to transform the world.

From the Stone Age to Christianity

There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament. The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . . . has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history.

The Archaeology of Palestine (rev. ed.)

WICK ALLISON

Even if there were little external evidence of Jesus’s life, the actions of His disciples and the written record produced by His followers hardly seem possible without a real person to inspire and motivate them. The fact that many of His early followers, including the Apostles themselves, were put to death on account of their fidelity to the mission they believed He had sent them on seems inconsistent with the notion that He was a fabrication.

That’s in the Bible?

ROBERT ALTER

Genesis begins with the making of heaven and earth and all life, and ends with the image of a mummy—Joseph’s—in a coffin. But implicit in the end is a promise of more life to come, of irrepressible procreation, and that renewal of creation will be manifested, even under the weight of oppression, at the beginning of Exodus . . . Although it looks forward to sequel, it stands as a book, inviting our attention as an audience that follows the tale from beginning to end.

Genesis: Translation and Commentary

MAX ANDERS

Without the Bible, we might believe that there was a God, but we would not know who He was, whether he wanted or expected anything from us, or how to get to know Him. The Bible fills in those gaps, and through the Scripture we can be led into an understanding of who God is and how to develop a relationship with Him.

The New Christian’s Handbook

The word inspired, when it is used in reference to the Bible, is a technical term meaning God-breathed . . . When God revealed His word to humans for the Bible, He supernaturally oversaw the writing down of the Scriptures so that without the loss of the writers’ own personalities, they composed and recorded without error God’s revelation in the original manuscripts and letters.

The New Christian’s Handbook

PAUL M. ANDERSON

I recall one evening reading a statement made by a 19th century professor of natural sciences, Henry Drummond: Willpower does not change men. Time does not change men. Christ does. I was somewhat startled—and excited—to realize that I understood its meaning. Subsequently, I bought a New Testament and read most of it in about three weeks. It amazed me. Here was a blueprint for living and a description and explanation of the sense of separation from God that I had been experiencing . . . I came to understand that one of the ways God communicates with us is through the writings of godly people as collected in the Bible, and that understanding its message is also a gift.

Professors Who Believe

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

It is one of the glories of the Bible that it can enshrine many meanings in a single passage . . . Each man marvels to find in the divine Scriptures truths which he has himself thought out.

De Potentia

MICHAEL C. ARMOUR

It is only natural to ask why the impact of the Bible has been so monumental. What accounts for its attractiveness over the centuries? And why is it still the best- selling book in the world? The answer lies in the great ideas conveyed by the Bible, the great truths it unfolds. No other book has ever surpassed its exalted view of God and His love for mankind. In a word, the Bible stretches our sense of who God is and what we have the potential to become because of His love.

A Newcomer’s Guide to the Bible

WILLIAM ARNDT

In reading and studying the books of the New Testament, we are doing what in other fields of learning would be considered beyond the scope or ability of the average person. Consulting primary sources is ordinarily the task of scholars and experts. When they have finished their work and written down their findings for us, we are satisfied. But in examining the books of the New Testament, we have access to the original documents in translation and do the research work ourselves.

MATTHEW W. ARNOLD

He will find one English book and one only, where, as in the Iliad itself, perfect plainness of speech is allied with perfect nobleness, and that book is the Bible.

KAY ARTHUR

The Bible was written so that anyone who wants to know who God is and how they are to live in a way that pleases Him can read it and find out. God wants to bring us into intimacy with Himself . . . He also wants us to understand the blessings of a life of obedience to His Word and the consequences of disobeying Him. And He wants us to know the truth about life and what is going to happen in the future.

How to Study Your Bible

GAIUS GLENN ATKINS

The Bible furnished good Christians an armor for their warfare, a guide for their conduct, a solace for their sorrows, food for their soul.

SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Scripture, which proves the truth of its historical statements by the accomplishment of its prophecies, gives no false information.

The City of God, Book XVI

If you believe what you like in the Gospels and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospels you believe, but yourself.

PAUL AZINGER

. . . During this time I faithfully attended a Bible Study Fellowship group in our hometown. I had been reading the Bible regularly since my first chemo. After recommitting my life to the Lord, I found that the Bible was no longer a dusty book, but a living Word. I knew I couldn’t live without it ever again. My initial meeting of the Bible study impressed me in many ways: the number of men there, the demographic diversity—wealthy and poor, black and white, young and old. But all the guys had a common goal—to discover in the Bible how Jesus Christ could be more real in their lives. My Bible study group became a mainstay in my physical and spiritual improvement.

Zinger: A Champion’s Story of Determination,

Courage, and Charging Back

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

This is the great fountain of music, and every musician should play to the glory of its Author.

FRANCIS BACON

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.

Essays

JIM BALL

The Scripture passages attest (that) this land is not my land, this land is not your land, this land is God’s land. This land was not made for you and me, it was made by and for Christ.

Creation Care

SAL BANDO

God’s gift, the Bible, is my manual on how to live a fruitful and meaningful life. I have found the Bible’s truth and authority to be restorative. In both my personal life and my professional baseball life, the Bible has been a foundation and a guide to work through life’s highs and lows. The Bible provides peace and strength for all my tomorrows.

WILLIAM BARCLAY

The Gospels are not primarily historical documents; they are not intended to be regarded as biographies of Jesus. They are in fact the preaching material of the early church . . . They are attempts to show the mind and heart and the character of Jesus; and they make this attempt, not simply as a matter of interest, and not simply as a contribution to history, but so that those who read may see the mind of God in Jesus. The Gospels are not simply descriptions of Jesus—they are invitations to believe in him as the Son of God.

Introducing the Bible

GEORGE BARNA

Almost all believers own a Bible (99 percent); in fact, more than three-quarters of them own three or more Bibles. Most of them read from the Bible, other than during church services, in a typical week. Three out of four believers indicate that during a typical week they have at least one quiet time or private devotional time. Most Christians take the Bible seriously.

Growing True Disciples

ALBERT BARNES

The Bible, as a revelation from God, was not designed to give us all the information we might desire, nor to solve all the questions about which the human soul is perplexed, but to impart enough to be a safe guide to the haven of eternal rest.

WILLIAM BARNES

It does not require great learning to be a Christian and to be convinced of the truth of the Bible. It requires only an honest heart and a willingness to obey God.

WILLIE BARROW

When I get down really low, I just go back to the Bible. He promised us that He would be our mother, our father, our sister, our brother, and I just keep going over that . . . Lord, I don’t have nobody but you—you’ve got to come and lift my spirit.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

KARL BARTH

Any Christian who wishes to live responsibly must read two things: the Bible and the daily newspaper—and never one without the other.

The Holy Scriptures will interpret themselves in spite of our human limitations. We need only to follow this drive, this spirit, this river, to grow out beyond ourselves toward the highest answer. This daring is faith; and we read the Bible rightly, not when we do so with false modesty, restraint, and attempted sobriety, for these are passive qualities, but when we read it in faith. And the invitation to dare and to reach toward the highest, even though we do not deserve it, is the expression of grace in the Bible.

It is not the right human thoughts about God which form the content of the Bible, but the right divine thoughts about men. The Bible tells us not how we should talk with God but what He says to us, not how we find the way to Him, but how He has sought and found the way to us; not the right relation in which we must place ourselves to Him, but the covenant which He has made with all who are Abraham’s spiritual children and which He has sealed once and for all in Jesus Christ. It is this which is within the Bible. The Word of God is within the Bible.

The Strange New World Within the Bible

BRUCE BARTON

The Bible rose to the place it now occupies because it deserved to rise to that place, and not because God sent anybody with a box of tricks to prove its divine authority.

The Man and the Book Nobody Knows

JACQUES BARZUN

The Bible was a whole literature, a library. It was an anthology of poetry and short stories. It taught history, biography, biology, geography, philosophy, political science, psychology, hygiene, and sociology (statistical at that), in addition to cosmogony, ethics, and theology. What gives the Bible so strong a hold on minds that once grow familiar with its contents is its dramatic reporting of human affairs. For all its piety, it presents a worldly panorama, and with particulars so varied that it is hard to think of a domestic or social situation without a biblical example to match and turn to moral ends.

From Dawn to Decadence

MARY BATCHELOR

Stained-glass windows . . . were once the ordinary person’s Bible. Before the invention of printing or the spread of literacy, men and women learned the Bible and the basics of their faith from the scenes depicted in church and cathedral windows . . . The original techniques of making stained glass have survived the centuries, although these days most sheets of coloured glass are produced commercially. But one artist explained why she still prefers the much more expensive hand-made glass. We pay for the imperfections, she acknowledged. The light is reflected through these small flaws and in this way every window makes its own unique and beautiful impact on the beholder. The men and women whose stories the Bible tells have flaws and imperfections too, and the Bible never tries to hide them. Often, as God impinges on their lives, these very imperfections become the means of reflecting the light of God’s love and power . . .

Windows on the Bible

HENRY WARD BEECHER

The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on rocks and bars . . . Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean and man’s obligations to God would be unchanged. He would have the same